# Rivet — AI Coding Tool Review & Pricing

> Open-source orchestrator for agentic workloads built on Rivet Actors: long-lived processes with in-memory state, a per-Actor SQLite database on S3, WebSockets and scheduling, so every agent, user, session or tenant gets its own durable process that hibernates when idle.

Source: https://ai.dosa.dev/tools/rivet · Updated Nov 7, 2026 · Category: Autonomous & Async Agents · Published by dosa.dev

## At a glance

- **Tool**: Rivet
- **Company**: Rivet (YC W23)
- **Category**: [Autonomous & Async Agents](https://ai.dosa.dev/category/async-agents)
- **Pricing model**: Open Source
- **Official website**: https://www.rivet.dev

## Key features

- Rivet Actors with in-memory state, per-Actor SQLite on S3, WebSockets and cron scheduling
- Hibernates idle Actors and wakes them on the next request with state intact
- Durable Agents library and replaying Workflows built on Actors
- agentOS sandboxing (V8 and WebAssembly) for code an agent writes, with network and filesystem controls
- End-to-end typed TypeScript clients (`rivetkit`), React hooks, scoped JWTs and OpenTelemetry
- `npx skills add rivet-dev/skills` lets Claude Code, Cursor or Codex scaffold a Rivet project
- Self-host on Docker, Kubernetes or a VM, or use Rivet Cloud or BYOC

## Pricing

**Model**: Open Source

Open-source (Apache-2.0) and free to run locally or self-host, with S3 as the only dependency. Rivet Cloud (fully managed dedicated clusters on AWS or GCP) and BYOC (control plane in your own VPC, managed by Rivet) are managed options; see rivet.dev for their pricing.

## Who it is for

- **Best for**: Teams building production AI agents or multiplayer agent apps that need durable per-agent state, realtime connections and cheap idle capacity without running a VM per agent.
- **Not ideal for**: Developers looking for a ready-made coding assistant, or teams whose agents need a full Linux VM for every session regardless of workload.

## Verdict

A well-engineered, actively shipped runtime that moves the agent loop out of the sandbox; strongest for TypeScript teams building agent products, less relevant if you only consume coding agents.

## Recent updates

v3.0.6 was released on Nov 6, 2026, a day after v3.0.5; Rivet launched on Hacker News as a Launch HN (YC W23) on Nov 5, 2026, pitching agent orchestration on S3.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is Rivet free?

Yes - Rivet is Open Source. Open-source (Apache-2.0) and free to run locally or self-host, with S3 as the only dependency. Rivet Cloud (fully managed dedicated clusters on AWS or GCP) and BYOC (control plane in your own VPC, managed by Rivet) are managed options; see rivet.dev for their pricing.

### Is Rivet open source?

Yes - Rivet is open source. Open-source (Apache-2.0) and free to run locally or self-host, with S3 as the only dependency. Rivet Cloud (fully managed dedicated clusters on AWS or GCP) and BYOC (control plane in your own VPC, managed by Rivet) are managed options; see rivet.dev for their pricing.

### Who is Rivet best for?

Teams building production AI agents or multiplayer agent apps that need durable per-agent state, realtime connections and cheap idle capacity without running a VM per agent.

### Who is Rivet not ideal for?

Developers looking for a ready-made coding assistant, or teams whose agents need a full Linux VM for every session regardless of workload.

### What are the best Rivet alternatives?

The closest Rivet alternatives on ai.dosa.dev are Jules by Google, OpenHands, SWE-agent - all listed under Autonomous & Async Agents.

### Who makes Rivet?

Rivet is developed by Rivet (YC W23). It is listed in the Autonomous & Async Agents category on ai.dosa.dev.

## Top alternatives

- [Jules by Google](https://ai.dosa.dev/tools/jules) (Freemium) — Developers who want to offload repetitive, non-urgent tasks like dependency version bumps, lint fixes, test scaffolding, and resolving CI failures in GitHub-hosted projects.
- [OpenHands](https://ai.dosa.dev/tools/openhands) (Freemium) — Individual developers and software teams looking to automate repetitive coding tasks, repository maintenance, and issue resolution through autonomous agents.
- [SWE-agent](https://ai.dosa.dev/tools/swe-agent) (Open Source) — Autonomous resolution of software engineering issues in real GitHub repositories and performing custom developer tasks using language models.
- [mini-swe-agent](https://ai.dosa.dev/tools/mini-swe-agent) (Open Source) — Researchers and engineers who want a small, transparent coding agent baseline for benchmarks, fine-tuning or sandboxed batch runs, and developers who want a simple bash-only agent in the terminal.
- [Sweep](https://ai.dosa.dev/tools/sweep) (Freemium) — Individual developers and teams working primarily in JetBrains IDEs who want a native-feeling assistant for routine coding tasks, bug fixes, and autocompletions.
- [Ellipsis](https://ai.dosa.dev/tools/ellipsis) (Freemium) — Teams looking to centralize and govern AI coding agents across repositories with secure, non-personal credentials and persistent cloud-based execution.
- Full alternatives guide: https://ai.dosa.dev/tools/rivet/alternatives